Enforcing Texan judgment

Whyte v Whyte CA TLR 23 August

The principle that where a party has submitted to the jurisdiction of a foreign court that court had jurisdiction to decide issues raised by the proceedings in which the submission had been made was particularly apt for application in the family jurisdiction where proceedings might affect a wide range of the aspects of the parties’ lives. Because the mother had submitted to the jurisdiction of the Texan court in divorce proceedings that court also had jurisdiction in respect of the husband’s claim for damages against her for ‘interference with possessory interest in child’ since the claims were directly concerned with the same subject matter and were therefore within the scope of the submission. Murthy v Sivasjothi [1999] 1 WLR 467 applied. The proceedings were remitted to the Queen’s Bench Division.